321 Launch: Space news you may have missed over the past week – Florida Today
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Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule set for test launch to International Space Station
Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft rolled out from Boeing’s manufacturing facility at Kennedy Space Center Thursday and made its way to Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to be mounted on top of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket.
The capsule is being prepared for an orbital test flight next month to the International Space Station. If all goes well, the capsule will launch a three-person crew sometime next year.
Rosie the Rocketeer
That Starliner capsule will have only one passenger: Rosie, an anthropometric test dummy decked out in hundreds of high-tech sensors that will measure G-forces during launch and landing and other critical data.
Leanne Caret, president of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security division, has named the that will fly aboard Starliner’s first orbital flight test after “Rosie the Riveter,” the famous World War II assembly line worker.
“Rosie is a symbol of not only the women who are blazing a trail in human spaceflight history, but also of everyone who has shown grit and determination while working tirelessly to ensure the Starliner can transport astronauts safely to and from the International Space Station,” Caret said.
“She’s flying for everyone on our team who took on the challenge of human spaceflight and said, ‘We can do it.’”
Boeing challenges report about the high cost of riding the Starliner to the ISS
Boeing this week challenged a NASA report noting the aerospace giant would likely charge the agency significantly more to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station than its competitor, SpaceX, despite having received more money from NASA to develop its Starliner crew capsule.
In fact, the report said it expects Boeing to charge more than NASA currently pays the Russian space agency to carry American astronauts to the ISS. In its response, Boeing said it “strongly disagrees” with the conclusions reached by the Office of Inspector General.
The watchdog report released by NASA last week examined the Commercial Crew Program, which was designed to return astronauts to the ISS from American soil after the space shuttle program ended in 2011. In evaluating the program, the report broke down the per-seat pricing of Boeing’s Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft at $90 million and $55 million, respectively. Flights on the Russian Soyuz, for context, cost about $85 million – though NASA does not require Commercial Crew seats to be cheaper than Russia.
See more of what the report, and Boeing, had to say.
Quick hits
- UCF researchers are tackling the problem of lunar dust.
- A Delta II rocket is headed to the KSC Visitor Complex.
- Mini-shuttle’s re-entry will be as visible as a “Shooting Star.”
Contact McCarthy at 321-752-5018 or at jmccarthy@floridatoday.com
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